The City Environment Office has said it before and is saying it again: don’t make our sewers a garbage can.
It’s a timely reminder considering that it is rainy season once more. And the proof of all the garbage in our sewers becomes crystal clear the moment the floodwaters come out of the clogged city canals.
Dumaguetenos always have a fitting reminder in the February 7, 2009 flood, the worst flood in the City’s history. More than 200 kilos of plastic were later recovered from the city’s canals. 200 kilos of plastic is quite a lot of plastic. Sadly, plastics are still the containers of choice by most Dumaguetenos today. We still have not learned our lesson as we still use plastics despite the various alternatives available to us.
An even bigger garbage dump is the Banica River. Many people living along its banks think nothing of throwing plastics and other non biodegradable stuff in the river. It also doesn’t help any that the Banica passes right along the Dumaguete City dumpsite, which, by the way, has seen better days. We used to call it the Gene V. Duran Ecological Park but its state now hardly does justice to the person honored.
We have tried but have failed in finding an alternative dumpsite. The DENR had said several times that they will enforce the law and shut down the Dumaguete dumpsite because it is not in the right place, So far, nothing has come out of it.
If we cannot yet find a suitable location for a dumpsite, everyone must do something to lessen their garbage, especially their non-biodegradable waste.
We cannot overemphasize the benefits of waste segregation. Aside from generating organic fertilizer from biodegradable garbage, we also lessen the amount of garbage in the City dumpsite.
Yes, all of us want Dumaguete City to be flood-free. All of us want to see clean rivers and seas and we have a choice as to how we should dispose of our garbage. It should be easy to add it all up.